TY - JOUR
T1 - Alumina/epoxy nanocomposite matching layers for high-frequency ultrasound transducer application
AU - Zhou, Qifa
AU - Cha, Jung Hyui
AU - Huang, Yuhong
AU - Zhang, Rui
AU - Cao, Wenwu
AU - Shung, K. Kirk
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received June 9, 2007; accepted July 30, 2008. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the nIH under Grant #P41-EB2182 and 1 r43 EB003244-01a1. q. F. Zhou, J. H. cha, and K. K. shung are with the department of Biomedical Engineering and nIH Transducer resource center, University of southern california, los angeles, ca. y. Huang is with chemat Technology Inc., northridge, ca. r. Zhang and W. cao are with Materials research Institute, The Pennsylvania state University, University Park, Pa. digital object Identifier 10.1109/TUFFc.2009.1021
PY - 2009/1
Y1 - 2009/1
N2 - Mismatch of acoustic impedance at the interface between a piezoelectric transducer and the medium to be probed will substantially reduce the amount of ultrasound energy being transmitted into the medium. Therefore, matching layer is a critical component of an ultrasonic transducer. A spin-coating process was used to fabricate alumina/polymer nanocomposite films with alumina volume fractions ranging from 14 to 32%. The particle size of alumina is in the range of 10 to 40 nm. The thicknesses of the matching layer can be controlled by the spinning speed and the concentration of solution. Acoustic impedances of these nanocomposite matching layers are in the range of 2.8 to 5.1 MRayls with different alumina contents, which meet the matching layer requirement. The attenuation of a nanocomposite matching layer with smooth surface is about 15 dB/mm at 40 MHz. The pulse-echo spectrum and frequency spectrum of a high-frequency transducer using this nanocomposite matching layer are reported.
AB - Mismatch of acoustic impedance at the interface between a piezoelectric transducer and the medium to be probed will substantially reduce the amount of ultrasound energy being transmitted into the medium. Therefore, matching layer is a critical component of an ultrasonic transducer. A spin-coating process was used to fabricate alumina/polymer nanocomposite films with alumina volume fractions ranging from 14 to 32%. The particle size of alumina is in the range of 10 to 40 nm. The thicknesses of the matching layer can be controlled by the spinning speed and the concentration of solution. Acoustic impedances of these nanocomposite matching layers are in the range of 2.8 to 5.1 MRayls with different alumina contents, which meet the matching layer requirement. The attenuation of a nanocomposite matching layer with smooth surface is about 15 dB/mm at 40 MHz. The pulse-echo spectrum and frequency spectrum of a high-frequency transducer using this nanocomposite matching layer are reported.
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U2 - 10.1109/TUFFC.2009.1021
DO - 10.1109/TUFFC.2009.1021
M3 - Article
C2 - 19213648
AN - SCOPUS:60349132113
SN - 0885-3010
VL - 56
SP - 213
EP - 219
JO - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
JF - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
IS - 1
M1 - 4775280
ER -